3. How do we solve
the most vexing
problems of our time?
We don’t.
Because some are not
problems to solve.
4. “To succeed in an increasingly
interconnected world, creative leaders avoid
choosing between unacceptable
alternatives. Instead, they use the power
inherent in these dualities to invent new
assumptions and create new models geared
to an ever-changing world.”
IBM Global Services Executive Report
Cultivating organizational creativity in an age of complexity
5. Places to Intervene in a System
12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards);
11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows;
10. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age
structures);
9. The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change;
8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct
against;
7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops;
6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to what kinds of
information);
5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints);
4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure;
3. The goals of the system;
2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system—its goals, structure, rules,
delays, parameters—arises; and,
1. The power to transcend paradigms.
Donella Meadows
8. • Addresses our highest values and our deepest
fears
• Applies to all levels and all sectors of society
• It reveals why we become victims AND why we
victimize others
• Helps us flip chronic conflict into sustainable
innovation and engagement
A Useful Way of Seeing
9. Today, let’s…
• Discover how to see polarities and gain a
practical tool for mapping and managing them
• Learn the critical relationship between polarities
and problems—and how to solve problems better
by discerning the polarities behind them
• Expand your ability to see the fuller picture in
any given situation and dramatically reduce
unintended consequences and fixes that fail
11. Get Oxygen
Too Much
Carbon Dioxide
Release
Carbon Dioxide
Not Enough
Oxygen
Live
Die
Anticipate
and/or
Experience
Anticipate
and/or
ExperienceInhale Exhaleand
Thrive
12. Centralized and Decentralized
Continuity and Innovation
Taking a multi-
disciplinary approach
and
Leveraging technical
silos
Capturing results and “Doing the work”
Keeping people and
communities safe
and Embracing risk
Five Polarities at UNDP
14. Continuity and Innovation
How do we realize the full benefit of keeping what’s
important about our past and current experience,
and innovating and learning so we can adapt to a
changing reality?
15.
16. • Building from core values
• Honoring traditions
• Continuity
• Leverage past and present
wisdom
• People feel honored for their
experience
InnovationContinuity
• Stagnation
• Loss of energy
• Missed opportunities
• Things don’t improve
• Change agents are denigrated
• Adapt to changing world
• New energy and direction
• Creativity
• Leverage new wisdom
• People feel honored for their
creativity
• Lose continuity
• Lose core values
• Foolish risk
• People feel lost
• Traditionalists are denigrated
17. At your tables…look at the upsides of Continuity
and Innovation and describe the society we get in
a short phrase.
InnovationContinuity and
• Building from core Values
• Honoring traditions
• Continuity
• Leverage past and present
wisdom
• People feel honored for their
experience
• Adapt to changing world
• New energy and direction
• Creativity
• Leverage new wisdom
• People feel honored for their
creativity
Defining the Higher Purpose
18. At your tables…look at the downsides of Continuity
and Innovation and describe the society we get in
a short phrase.
InnovationContinuity and
• Stagnation
• Loss of energy
• Missed opportunities
• Things don’t improve
• Change agents are denigrated
• Lose continuity
• Lose core values
• Foolish risk
• People feel lost
• Traditionalists are denigrated
Identifying the Deeper Fear
19. Polarity Principle #1
We fear losing the
things we value most.
Fear arises from the perception that
“others” are causing the loss of
something we deeply value.
20. A Thriving, Successful Society
Failed Society
Innovation
• Stagnation
• Loss of energy
• Missed opportunities
• Things don’t improve
• Change agents are denigrated
• Adapt to changing world
• New energy and direction
• Creativity
• Leverage new wisdom
• People feel honored for their
creativity
21. A Thriving, Successful Society
Failed Society
• Building from core Values
• Honoring traditions
• Continuity
• Leverage past and present
wisdom
• People feel honored for their
experience
Continuity
• Lose continuity
• Lose core values
• Foolish risk
• People feel lost
• Traditionalists are denigrated
23. • Innovation and
entrepreneurship
• You keep what you earn
• Individual opportunity
Common Good
• Increasing discrepancies
between haves and have-nots
• Exploitation of common
resources
• Opportunity for privileged few
Self-Interest
• Passivity and lack of initiative
• Entitlement
• Over-regulation
• Take care of one another
• Shared resources are protected
• Opportunity for all
and
A Thriving, Resilient Society
A Failing, Polarized Society
24. Polarity Principle #2
Work towards the
upsides of both values
and you create a
Virtuous Cycle leading
to the Higher Purpose.
25. Polarity Principle #3
When you over-emphasize one
value over time, to the neglect of
its pair, you get:
1. The downsides of the chosen value
2. A Vicious Cycle of polarization that
eventually leads to the downsides of
both values
26. Common Good
• Increasing discrepancies
between haves and have-nots
• Exploitation of common
resources
• Opportunity for privileged few
• Take care of one another
• Shared resources are protected
• Opportunity for all
or
A Thriving, Resilient Democracy
A Failing, Polarized “Democracy”
Liberal
Stereotypes
Self-Interest
27. • Innovation and
entrepreneurship
• You keep what you earn
• Individual opportunity
Common GoodSelf-interest
• Passivity and lack of
initiative
• Entitlement
• Over-regulation
or
A Thriving, Resilient Democracy
A Failing, Polarized “Democracy”
Conservative
Stereotypes
28. Polarity Principle #4
We tend to make other
individuals or groups
“containers” for the
values we disfavor.
…and we positively stereotype our own
values as if they have no downsides.
29. There are two truths
in every polarity,
and neither is the
whole truth.
Polarity Principle #5
34. Save time – solve problems
Accomplishment/Decisions
and
Waste time w/unsolvable issues
Polarization
Save time – leverage polarities
Accelerate/sustain desired change
Waste time in indecision
Frustration w/lack of accomplishment
Highly Efficient and Effective Thinking
Highly Inefficient and Ineffective Thinking
Leveraging
Polarities
Solving
Problems and
Solving Problems & Leveraging Polarities
35. Both-And thinking is
critical for managing
polarities
1. Save time by identifying difficulties
that can be managed, not solved
2. Accelerate change by seeing the
whole picture more clearly
3. Sustain change, avoid pendulum
swings & unintended consequences
Either-Or thinking is
critical for solving
problems
1. Identify clear final answers
2. Enjoy the sense of accomplishment
that comes through solving a problem
3. Move on to new opportunities and
challenges
&
Involves two or more mutually-
exclusive options
Involves two equally valid and
necessary points of view or truths
Problems & Polarities
37. Behind every problem…
there’s one or more polarity.
Centralization &
Decentralization
Custom
Info &
Common
Info
Commitment
& Possibilities
Freedom
& Control
WHICH
INFORMATION
SYSTEM?
Problems & Polarities
41. To find polarities, look for:
1. Dominant values, statements of pride, or
favored competencies
2. Frustrations with the way things are or have
been
3. Fears about a direction, proposal or “fix” that
others are asserting
Seeing Polarities
42. Never stop at balance
when leveraging
polarities.
Always go for
optimization.
Polarity Principle #10
43. 1. Use the basic polarity grid as a way to
structure what you’re hearing—start with
values, frustrations or fears.
2. Look for people “pairing off” around polarity
tensions.
3. Read the newspaper—full of polarities!
4. Try mapping with another person because
your values blind you to the other value.
5. Develop a polarity repertoire.
Next Steps
Russ: What people resist are the disadvantages of change and the loss of the advantages of the current state.There is often great wisdom in the resistance. It is wisdom based on learning from the past, when we overemphasized one pole at the expense of the other. Although we often “overlearn” from the past!
Cliff:The values in each pair are interdependent—they need each otherTo get the best of both, we need bothThe tension you chose earlier has a pair of values behind it (e.g. home and work)
Russ
Russ: Don’t choose Both-And thinking over Either-Or thinking!Doing so is itself a case of either-or thinkingThe downside is not solving problems and making choices using either-or thinking, which is a critical task (and the reason why either-or thinking is so valued)
Cliff
Russ: Don’t choose Both-And thinking over Either-Or thinking!Doing so is itself a case of either-or thinkingThe downside is not solving problems and making choices using either-or thinking, which is a critical task (and the reason why either-or thinking is so valued)
Russ: Don’t choose Both-And thinking over Either-Or thinking!Doing so is itself a case of either-or thinkingThe downside is not solving problems and making choices using either-or thinking, which is a critical task (and the reason why either-or thinking is so valued)
Russ: Balance is about getting to stasis, to a compromise that holds. This can be very beneficial when an individual, team, or organisational system is out of balance. This is like escaping from the rip current.But don’t stop there! Actively working toward the upsides of both values in a polarity helps us optimize the whole polarity, and create virtuous cycles of innovation and engagement. This is like using the rip current to make surfing faster and easier!
Russ: Balance is about getting to stasis, to a compromise that holds. This can be very beneficial when an individual, team, or organisational system is out of balance. This is like escaping from the rip current.But don’t stop there! Actively working toward the upsides of both values in a polarity helps us optimize the whole polarity, and create virtuous cycles of innovation and engagement. This is like using the rip current to make surfing faster and easier!
